With the caveat that I stayed up too late reading this so I skimmed a lot at the end heres a brief summary of the main points of what happens. OBVIOUSLY SPOILERS. LET ME KNOW WHAT I NEED TO SPOILER TAG I DON'T KNOW THE ETIQUETTE YET

(I put a line where they really start)

Main differences:
Novel begins in the nunnery, Madame Yu has no idea what happened until her son and FYK return to the capital so she's not relevant until way later
A-Sen is 8, is educated, becomes a scholar, and marries a Miss Wang (should be happening bc of cast list)
16th Master is a Vassal Prince who wasn’t supposed to leave without permission and later in the novel rebels against the new emperor who only exists because of eunuch shenanigans (not relevant in the show as we’ve now seen)
Her mom goes with dad and brother to the capital early on and she only finds out when she gets there (originally FTY’s supposed to find her maternal uncle but they find out he and his entire family was wiped out by the refugees which is super sad). (I’ll come back to this later.)
Madam Zuo is irrelevant and dies (don’t even remember when), Zuo Junjie does confess but only after they find him in the capital and torture him, so the show did a good job changing things up.

Novel
ZL runs into her because he needs grains for the refugees, and he’s a salt smuggler but there’s no investigation, he saves her in 15~ and we move onto the scene where they’re in the building and he has to fight some bandits and it’s not until ZL defeats a few that 16th master lets General Mo and the other guys fight (in the 30s).

There’s a lot of chapters where they’re all stuck at an inn and honestly I already forgot a lot of the details LOL, but the women and A-Sen, the two younger guys, and Yucheng (RIP!!!!) go to a different home while ZL continues to heal from beat up by the bandits earlier. (General Mo doesn’t like him at first). They finally do make it to the army town and while he’s away, she meets all the army women.

Concubine Lu is Feng in the book and her brother is Feng Dahu. A similar plot occurs with the dog attack in chapter 90. But the main difference is that we don’t see his death because ZL is 1000 li away and has to do it overnight then get back to the army. A bunch of time jumps happen with ZL and the men doing army things while FTY, SN, and A Sen live their lives/he comes back and they get closer. They make it to the capital, she continues to befriend people in the capital and is amazing.

As time passes, she tries to get her father and brother to talk to her so she can see her mom, but they refuse to acknowledge her, so there’s a TON of back and forth between her and her father and she even says he’s not her father when she meets Master Yu (and pretty much everywhere LOL). ZL goes with her when he’s back from doing army crap and they both just say F it and find mom and mom blesses their marriage! Wedding is 160. (The empress dowager and empress make it happen which I'm excited to see in the show).

We eventually see a lot of her sisters and cousins because when they find out she’s alive they all start showing up. The Fu family actually ends up splitting because a different uncle finds out what happens and says how dare I can’t be part of this family treating her like this. Grandma dies (257).

BIG SPOILERS FROM HERE ON FOR THE BADDIES
There’s a lot of military stuff so ZL is off page, he shows up, gets her pregnant, leaves a bit later, this continues to happen until they’ve got four! Kids! (they’re ravenous for one another lol)

Okay but y’all really just wanna know what happens to all our favorite bad guys:

Madame Yu and her husband are on the same page so they spend most of their page time politicking and in mothers case wondering how her son is such a buffoon because YK has no skills in really anything. Dads pretty frustrated too because the reason FTY’s dad and uncle are blackmailed by YJX to let him destroy FTY is that one of them actually cheated on his scholar exam using you guessed it, ZL’s dads work. but YJX could have just said nah I don’t wanna marry her. So his dad is like wow you’re a dummy.

FYK can’t get pregnant so eventually Yu brings Concubine Wu (in the 215s) in who is the relative of a Madam Wu we haven’t met in the show yet. She gets pregnant in one night and YJX never shows up to see her again. Unfortunately, in a accident she falls and thus no baby (who would have been a son). FYK also gets pregnant but delivers a sickly girl who eventually dies in during a snowstorm. They need a son so Madame Yu’s first and third sister in laws who have the real power in the extended Yu family sent concubines. First sends Fei and third sends another one. She dips bc she hates the drama and says no way). Fei sticks around and schemes in hopes of making FJX and Yu happy. The embroidery bit with FYK’s maid is actually something that happens with Fei bc she makes him clothes.

Lots of nonsense happens and ultimately he ends up helping some girl named Ming who is also a schemer (and has her betrothed assassinated? Honestly at this point it was 3am and I was tired) of course they have to bring her into the family, FYK is miserable and then when they can prove all the misdeeds: Dad Yu is exiled and dies, mom dies from illness/grief, YJX is demoted to commoner status and is stuck with FYK who is bedridden and Fei who gets stuck caring for the kids who end up existing. (In the last few chapters).

Wu gets away though with help from our fave girl and lives happily ever after!

Anyone else who has read please add or if I mixed up something lemme know. It’s 314 chapters so there’s a lot! I did like reading it and it’s one of the only ones I’ve read all the way but I think the show is doing great adapting the core elements without it being boring bc reading all the back and forth is fun but not watching it.